The purpose of this study is to describe and analyse the policies and approaches of two countries with experience in private sector solutions to improving roads infrastructure.

Whilst one of the cases is a developed country, the aim of the study is to elucidate best practices experiences that can give guidance, in a practical form, to policy makers in developing countries.

A poor road network and poor standards of maintenance characterize many developing countries. Landlocked developing countries face additional constraints of international road access to sea ports.

Perceptions of an inadequate road network exist both:

• In very poor and slow growing developing countries, where a lack of roads is seen as presenting an obstacle to development take-off; and
• In fast-growing developing countries, where roads and complementary transport infrastructure are seen as a bottleneck to maintaining the pace of expansion.

These perceptions persist despite decades of public funding and operation of roads supported by large-scale official development assistance (ODA).

Attracting private investment, including foreign direct investment (FDI), is seen by many governments as an attractive means of complementing public funding.